The "Why use F#?" series

This series of posts will give you a guided tour through the main features of F# and then show you ways that F# can help you in your day-to-day development.

1. Introduction to the 'Why use F#' series
An overview of the benefits of F#
2. F# syntax in 60 seconds
A very quick overview on how to read F# code
3. Comparing F# with C#: A simple sum
In which we attempt to sum the squares from 1 to N without using a loop
4. Comparing F# with C#: Sorting
In which we see that F# is more declarative than C#, and we are introduced to pattern matching.
5. Comparing F# with C#: Downloading a web page
In which we see that F# excels at callbacks, and we are introduced to the 'use' keyword
6. Four Key Concepts
The concepts that differentiate F# from a standard imperative language
7. Conciseness
Why is conciseness important?
8. Type inference
How to avoid getting distracted by complex type syntax
9. Low overhead type definitions
No penalty for making new types
10. Using functions to extract boilerplate code
The functional approach to the DRY principle
11. Using functions as building blocks
Function composition and mini-languages make code more readable
12. Pattern matching for conciseness
Pattern matching can match and bind in a single step
13. Convenience
Features that reduce programming drudgery and boilerplate code
14. Out-of-the-box behavior for types
Immutability and built-in equality with no coding
15. Functions as interfaces
OO design patterns can be trivial when functions are used
16. Partial Application
How to fix some of a function's parameters
17. Active patterns
Dynamic patterns for powerful matching
18. Correctness
How to write 'compile time unit tests'
19. Immutability
Making your code predictable
20. Exhaustive pattern matching
A powerful technique to ensure correctness
21. Using the type system to ensure correct code
In F# the type system is your friend, not your enemy
22. Worked example: Designing for correctness
How to make illegal states unrepresentable
23. Concurrency
The next major revolution in how we write software?
24. Asynchronous programming
Encapsulating a background task with the Async class
25. Messages and Agents
Making it easier to think about concurrency
26. Functional Reactive Programming
Turning events into streams
27. Completeness
F# is part of the whole .NET ecosystem
28. Seamless interoperation with .NET libraries
Some convenient features for working with .NET libraries
29. Anything C# can do...
A whirlwind tour of object-oriented code in F#
30. Why use F#: Conclusion